To overcome conceptual difficulties in earlier media stereotype research, Seiter (1986) and Gorham (1999) propose that we think of stereotypes in ideological terms, especially as perpetuators of racial myths. Racial myths reinforce negative views of oppressed groups and positive views of the powerful. In this study, however, empirical data about preconceptions and film portrayals of Native Americans suggest that in some instances powerless groups can be “stereotyped” much more positively than powerful ones are.